


Maximilian and Elk Father

by TheLadySyk0



Series: The New Alternia [5]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Baby, Canada, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Cookies, Deer, Gen, Log Cabins, Lusus, Snow, baby cuteness, connects to other parts of series, elk, lusus taking care of human baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 10:02:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8975152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadySyk0/pseuds/TheLadySyk0
Summary: Just a little bit of Christmas fluff for the New Alternia series but can be read alone. Elk father and his new Human charge Maximilian spend their first Christmas together in the Canadian woods. Fluffy kid stuff and lusus stuff.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! This is my first Christmas special I'm posting for the series! The Christmas special for Starship Skaia will be on Christmas eve tomorrow and Minnie and Crocodile dad christmas special will be here right on Christmas day (if everything goes to plan).
> 
> Anyways this connects to both Minnie and Crocodile dad as well as Starship Skaia! 
> 
> Now I hope you enjoy Maximilian and Elk father!

Elk father tapped delicately through the Canadian snow. The Alternian elk stood at nine feet tall, thick fur as white as the snow in this desolate tundra, long-legged, graceful and powerful. His shiny black eyes hid intelligence, his long antlers sweeping off in graceful arches.

Somewhere out in the snow a branch cracked and Elk father’s head snapped around to track the sound, his ears unfolding to reveal three pairs of identical deer-like ears, fanning out to track the sound.

After a tense moment the Elk decided that it was nothing and continued on.

Elk Father decided he fit in rather well here considering the circumstances, being an Alternian elk and all, but he acclimated well to this planet, bounding through the snowy woods of this planet as if he was built for it . His white fur made it seem as though he was one with this landscape, the only things betraying him from the rest of the scenery was his wet shiny black eyes, the red scarf around his neck, and the baby pouch currently strapped to his chest.

Maximilian murmured where he sat in the pouch. He looked wide-eyed at the scenery, his pudgy baby features accentuated by the thick snowsuit he wore. His shin was dark under a red beanie with a pom pom that matched Elk Father’s scarf.

He waved his little baby arms and cooed.

Elk father chittered lovingly down at his son and took a moment to bend his graceful neck down to nuzzle the child. Maximilian screeched delightedly and cooed back at his father. Elk father licked his son’s cheek and Maximilian Laughed and kicked his little feet.

Elk Father continued through the woods, tapping delicately through the snow, past great pines and thick drifts of snow.

The woods suddenly cut off and Elk father was suddenly in a convenience store parking lot. He shook the snow off his fur and continued to the store.

The doors of the convenience store whooshed open and Elk Father tapped gently into the store. He took the pom pom of Maximilian’s hat and gently tugged the garment off the toddler. Elk father tucked the hat back into the baby pouch and licked Maximilian’s ears to warm them.

“Oh heya der.” A man wearing flannel with a scruffy beard paused from where he had been reading his newspaper behind the counter to greet them “Always good to see ya Elk.” He smiled a wide smile and waved at Maximilian who giggled and kicked his little bootied feet. “An’ da little guy a’ course!”

Elk father snuffled at Phil in greeting and licked his forehead. Phil smiled and batted him away playfully.

“Now come on den!” Phil laughed and waved him off “Ya gonna buy something or ya gonna shoot da breeze all day?”

Elk father snorted at Phil and smiled before tipping a horn to the stack of shopping baskets. He caught a basket on a horn and with the basket properly balanced he continued to tap into the store. 

He leaned and gripped a pack of flour gingerly with his teeth and gingerly placed it in the basket, he also got butter and eggs, a tiny bottle of vanilla and a tub of green and red sprinkles Earl had apparently stocked for last-minute holiday cooking shoppers.

Elk father frowned at the empty store and the desolate-looking streets. Not that there seemed to be many last-minute holiday cooking shoppers.

He took his basket back to Earl and Earl put down his paper to ring him up.

Phil started to scan the groceries and Elk father snorted at the empty store and then turned back to Phil expectantly. 

Phil shrugged and grimaced. “Yeah. The store has been pretty dead.” He looked out across the street where snow was blowing in every which direction. “The town is going under and fast. Most people want to be closer to the cities where there is work ya know?”

He sighed and wrapped the eggs in an extra bag to keep them safe. “Sometimes I even feel like joining them yanno? Der ain’t much fer a fella like me with an engineering degree here now that the plant has closed”

Elk father looked at Phil thoughtfully and snorted at the paper Phil was reading on the counter. In large letters on the front read “Planning stages for Starship Skaia now underway!” a smaller headline reads “With the starship Skaia still under construction, world leaders are already recruiting the best of the best to man the massive Earth-Alternian initiative.”

Phil chuckled “I don’t figure I got any a chance at dat der.”

The human sighed and rubbed his neck. He looked out at the store. “But dis store was my father’s store. And his father’s store. And now dat Jim’s Grocery is gone dis here is the only place fer de people left to get food.”

Phil shrugged and rubbed a thumb over the image on the front page of the partially constructed Starship Skaia. “But if things keep going like dey are...I might just stop having a reason to be here…”

Elk father licked him consolingly on the forehead and Phil smiled and rubbed his friend’s muzzle. “Go on den.” Phil laughed “Get outta ‘ere fore I get too soft.”

Phil helped Elk father balance two grocery bags on either antler and Elk father tugged Maximillian’s hat from his pack and fit it gently back over his son’s head.

Phil waved them goodbye and Elk father tip tapped back into the woods, up the steep snow-covered hill up the trails made originally by Earth deer. Maximilian was held high above the snow and waved his little mitten-ed hands at branches and squealed in delight as little red cardinals flew through the woods and chirped down at them.

Finally Elk father and Maximilian arrived back at their cabin. Elk father tugged the keys out of the baby pack, a long wooden keychain to help him maneuver it with his mouth, he unlocked the door and tugged Maximilian from his pack to totter excitedly on the floor.

The cabin was small but homely, a red blanket draped over a dark couch covered in Elk father’s white fur, a small kitchen with light wood cabinets and red back-splash, Maximilian’s bedroom was in a small room off to the side as well as a small bathroom. A fireplace stood in front of the couch, a collection of white deer figurines across the mantelpiece given to Elk by the sparse residents in the town, Miss Katherine the bartender, her two boys, Charlie the antique store owner, Nina the school teacher who doubled as the town librarian, and Lorraine the bed and breakfast owner who catered to the rare hikers in these parts. 

The embers had gone low since he went to the store. He put a log on the embers of the fire and blew on it to stoke the flame. Maximilian tottered about in his fluffy snowsuit like a little penguin before falling over accidentally.

With the fire properly stoked Elk Father came back to tug his son out of his snowsuit, he set the bags of groceries down in the little kitchenette and unpacked the bags. He nosed open a cupboard and retrieved a cookbook.

He nosed open to a recipe for sugar cookies and studied it seriously.

This was his first Christmas with his son and apparently this holiday was very special for humans. He wanted to make sure it went well.

Maximilian tottered over to inspect what he was doing and Elk father took him by the scruff of his hoodie to pull him up onto the counter.

The day was spent mixing the batter, Elk father licking Maximilian’s dough-sticky fingers, rolling out the dough with a rolling pin held delicately in his mouth, his neck bent awkwardly to the side to keep it even, Maximilian helping him cut out little cookie deer with the cookie cutters Phil had given him as an early Christmas present.

The little sugar-cookie deer baked and Elk father had a bit of trouble getting them out of the oven. He ended up sliding the tray gently out of the oven with a hoof and waiting patiently until it cooled before picking it up off the floor and onto the counter.

Maximilian helped him frost and Elk father kept him from eating too many sprinkles.

After dinner Maximilian and Elk father lounged by the fire, eating the little cookies and gazing dreamily at the Christmas tree Elk had gotten the day before, it was a little too big and the top of the tree squished at the ceiling but Maximilian seemed pleased regardless which was all Elk father wanted.

Maximilian fell asleep with a sigh against his father’s furry side and Elk father stooped down his lick his little pudgy cheeks fondly.

He looked up at the Christmas tree and sighed.

Yes this was good.


End file.
